In a recent edition of The Fishing Wire www.thefishingwire.com, Ed Halm praised the merits of kayak fishing. Fishing paddlers, according to Mr. Halm, are fueling a current growth spurt in water sports.
As owner of Backwater Paddle Company www.backwaterpaddles.com Mr. Halm obviously has a vested interested paddle sports and paddle sport fishing. His column did prompt me to order one of his paddles but it was more than a sales pitch.
I’ve been fishing from paddle boats for several years so maybe, for once, I’m ahead of the popularity curve, although I’m not sure what good it will do me. My affinity for paddle boats is practical: they are affordable and fun and from a fishing prospective – productive.
Most will float in little more than a skim of water. You can go where the power boats can’t follow and even if the fish aren’t biting that sometimes is enough.
I started in an aluminum canoe. It was heavy and hard to handle and had already suffered a battered and abused life by the time it got to me. I didn’t care. It was a Cadillac on the water so far as I was concerned.
In recent years I’ve migrated to kayaks (I own two and my work has afforded me the opportunity to use many others, like the Hobie Pro Angler www.hobie.com pictured ). As Mr. Halm noted in his column, many of today’s kayaks are high-tech marvels. They are lightweight and tough. Some are designed specifically for fishermen. Everything from rudders and anchors to built-in live wells and rod holders are standard equipment. The Hobie that’s pictured even has a MirageDrive peddle propulsion system. The accessory list for any of the boats is long.
If you haven’t tried fishing from a paddle boat recently I urge you to do so. Canoes and other paddle craft opened America and made the Native Americans a mobile nation long before Henry Ford began rolling Model Ts out of Michigan. Maybe they were onto something.
The Outdoor Notebook 